yesteryear

American  

[yes-ter-yeer, -yeer] / ˈjɛs tərˈjɪər, -ˌjɪər /

noun

1. last year.

2. the recent years; time not long past.

---

adverb

1. during time not long past.

yesteryear British  

/ ˈjɛstəˌjɪə /

noun

1. last year or the past in general

---

adverb

1. during last year or the past in general

Etymology

Origin of yesteryear

yester- + year; apparently introduced by D.G. Rossetti (1870) to render Middle French antan (Villon)

Explanation

Yesteryear is an extremely poetic way to refer to the past. You might nostalgically talk about the town where you used to live as your home of yesteryear. The word yesteryear was actually invented by a poet, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, in 1870. Rossetti was searching for an accurate way to translate a phrase by the French poet Francois Villon — the line he came up with was "But where are the snows of yesteryear?" Other translators have substituted yore for yesteryear, but the latter is a word that perfectly captures a kind of nostalgia for a lost past.

Example Sentences

Was Yesteryear Ranch inspired by the popular tradwife influencer Ballerina Farm?

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 8, 2026

When she wakes one day on her Yesteryear Ranch seemingly in 1855 without electricity, modern medicine or her team of nannies, her throwback lifestyle gets all too real.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 8, 2026

The Crazy Keyboards of Yesteryear And how they could lead us to a better typing future.

From Slate • Dec. 7, 2012

"You must never undertake the search for time lost," warns the last sentence of Gregor von Rezzori's The Snows of Yesteryear, "in the spirit of nostalgic tourism."

From Time Magazine Archive

Yesteryear that problem vexed; One day spatted he would fare, Lacking colour; and the next Spatless, in chromatic wear.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, March 18, 1914 by Seaman, Owen, Sir